Spanish giants Barcelona said yesterday they had pledged to aid the reconstruction of Brazilian side Chapecoense, decimated by an air crash last month in Colombia. The Catalan club said they had invited Chapecoense to participate in the pre-season Joan Gamper tournament next August at the Nou Camp. “Barcelona has agreed to invite the Brazilian team Chapecoense, victim of a tragic air accident as they headed for the final of the Copa Sudamericana, to the next edition of the Joan Gamper trophy,” a club statement read.
Barca said they wanted to pay homage to the 71 people who were killed in the November 28 crash — many of them players and officials of the Brazilian club — and their loved ones. “With the invitation to Chapecoense to the 2017 Joan Gamper trophy FC Barcelona wishes to help with the institutional and sporting reconstruction of the club,” the Catalan club said. It added it hoped the initiative would help the Brazilians “regain the level of competition it previously had.”
Barca said the Nou Camp date would constitute a “great homage from the world of football” in memory of the victims of the tragedy which shook the sporting world and revived memories of the 1958 Munich air disaster, in which eight Manchester United players died.
Suarez to be offered new
contract, says Barca president
Barcelona’s prolific striker Luis Suarez will be offered a new contract with the Spanish champions until 2022, president Josep Maria Bartomeu said yesterday. The 29-year-old Uruguayan collected the European Golden Shoe last season for the top scorer in domestic football in Europe with 40 league goals, helping Barca’s famed ‘MSN’ trio also containing Messi and Brazilian forward Neymar score a record 131 goals in all competitions.
Suarez has won eight trophies since joining Barcelona from Liverpool in 2014, including two La Liga titles, two King’s Cups and the Champions League. He is the club’s joint top scorer in the league this season alongside Messi with nine goals.
Nothing to fear, says Ronaldo
in tax row
Cristiano Ronaldo shrugged off allegations that he hid millions of euros in tax havens by insisting “he who owes nothing, fears nothing”, Spanish radio reported yesterday.
“You believe I am worried? He who owes nothing, fears nothing,” said the superstar after being approached by Portuguese TV station RTP to respond to the allegations after Real Madrid’s Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday evening.
An international consortium of media organisations last week claimed that a huge data leak involving 18mn documents showed the Portuguese skipper hid 150mn euros ($160mn) from image rights in the British Virgin Islands. Ronaldo, 31, has strongly denied all claims of wrongdoing. On Wednesday, his club side came out in his defence.
FIFA impose life bans on
two ex-African officials
Former Zimbabwe Football Association official Jonathan Musavengana and ex-Togo coach Banna Tchanile have been barred from all football-related activity for life by FIFA’s ethics committee yesterday for corruption.
The bans handed down by world football’s governing body relate to a number of international friendly matches played in South Africa in 2010. In addition, Kirsten Nematandani, the former president of the South African Football Association (SAFA), was given a five-year ban.
